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Thursday, May 29, 2014

I usually like calling out an innovative new business model whenever I see one, but usually I wouldn’t equate World Wrestling Entertainment (or WWE for short) with an innovative new business model that will prove to the the rule rather than the exception.

Anyways, most people think of pro wrestling as a pseudo-sport, and while that is partially true, I feel that the whole idea of entertaining people in an athletic way is something that all the major professional sports leagues are doing anyway, and the WWE (or WWF/World Wrestling Federation as it has been known in the past) has really become known as kind of an innovator in sports being classified more as entertainment than as actual sports.

So, that innovation has become the new WWE Network, where basically you pay just $9.99/month, with a 6 month commitment, to have access to the entire library of WWE pay-per-views, including live WWE pay-per-views, and have something of a nonlinear network structure to boot.

The nonlinear network structure, and the fact that you can actually queue up old programming, or start from the very beginning of a program you want to watch, is a truly innovative idea that, in my opinion, supersedes that of the whole idea of sports-as-entertainment as being the most innovative idea that has sprung from anyone’s mind, ever. I challenge everyone who isn’t a fan of sports being entertainment to stop for one second and figure out if that is, indeed, what the professional sports leagues are REALLY doing and see that the idea of actually UNDERVALUING their content, and charging a REASONABLE price per month like Vince McMahon is doing is actually really the wave of the future.

People are going to try to DVR your content anyway, so why do you continue to stick like glue to an antiquated business model that basically the WWE Network has essentially upended?